Family Ties
by insomniaddict24601
Summary: Percy introduces Nico to Katherine, the new camper. But something about her is painfully familiar. Wonder what it is? Then read the story, duh.


**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

**This takes place when Nico is 19, in 2017, 8 years after the death of his sister, Bianca.**

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><p>He skimmed down the list of playlists, checking the ones he wanted for the upcoming weekend away from camp. Nico was visiting his girlfriend's family in Minnesota in three days for the Thanksgiving holiday. Not one he usually celebrated, but Jayda seemed to think it was a good chance to introduce him to her parents. Based on the description, neither one of them really wanted to go. So Nico was brining his iPod with him. If Andy Biersack couldn't get him through a midwestern family holiday, no one could. As he watched iTunes flip through the song titles, he heard a violent pounding on the front door.<p>

"DiAngelo!" Percy yelled through the thick obsidian door of his cabin.

"What?" Nico asked, opening the door. Percy was standing on the steps, holding the hand of a little girl. She couldn't have been older than six or seven. She had thin, messy black hair pulled back with a pink hair clip. The clothes she was wearing would have been nice is they weren't so worn out. Her white cardigan had dried blood stains near the cuffs of the sleeves and looked like it had been dragged behind a truck before she put it on. Her velcro mary janes were scuffed up so badly, you could barely tell the color (pink, of course). The velcro was so worn out, it didn't even stick anymore. She looked tired, and was too mature for a six year old. She looked like a demigod.

"This is Katharine. Mind giving her the tour? She just got here." Percy explained, nudging the girl towards the door with his knee and trying to twist his hand out of her sticky grasp. Percy didn't really like kids. Nico didn't generally like them, either, but there was something about the way she looked at him with those big brown eyes. He knew he had seen them before. Something about the way they were able to pierce into his soul and pick him apart. Nico looked away from her gaze. She didn't need to see his soul. It might give her nightmares.

"Sure thing, Percy. I'll take her off your hands. All right, Katherine. Come on. You can come in. I just have to finish cleaning my cabin before we leave." He offered her his outstretched hand. Katherine tentatively reached out, placing her hand in his and allowing herself to be led into the dark obsidian cabin. Nico couldn't describe the jolt he felt when she touched him, but he knew there was something there. Some sort of connection. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

Katherine sat down in the swivel chair by his desk while he gathered all of his dirty laundry in one basket.

"Your name's Katherine?" Nico asked, trying to start some form of conversation, but failing to think of a suitable conversation starter for someone still in grade school. Katherine nodded softly and Nico smiled.

"That's a pretty name. Do you like it?" he asked. She nodded again, but a little more confidently this time.

"It's a Greek name, you know? It means pure." he said, trying not to choke out the last part. Bianca meant pure, as well. She used to tell him that all the time.

"Pure?" she asked, in a voice that sounded so terribly familiar he almost cried.

"Pure. It means, like, clean and white and good."

"Oh. That's pretty." she nodded. Nico stood up and walked toward the mirror with the windex. The smoke from the greek fire always left a layer of white ash over everything if he left it for too long. It seemed like he was always wiping this mirror down. He stooped down, wiping away the ash gathering around the feet of the mirror. Then he stood up and nearly screamed. Standing next to him in the reflection was Bianca. Same floppy green hat. Same olive skin. Same brown eyes. Same messy black hair. Same shy, protective attitiude. He looked to his side, but it wasn't Bianca standing there. It was Katherine.

Then it all clicked. Why hadn't he heard from his sister's ghost since the Titan War? Maybe because she was busy. Busy doing something else. Busy _being _something else. Bianca had died a hero, so what was stopping her from choosing to be reborn?

Katherine met his eyes and she understood for the first time that she belonged here. She had a home. Something about this boy was familiar to her. It was comforting. Better than the foster homes she had grown up in or the park benches she'd slept on when she'd finally had enough of the state's system. This was going to be better, she thought to herself. Now that she had a family to hang on to, she wasn't going to let it go.

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><p><strong>I don't care how much you beg me, I am not going to update this. Ever. It is a ONE shot. With ONE chapter. So don't ask. <strong>

**But you can still send me a review :)**


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